Saturday, May 24, 2008

Diary of a Goldwinger Part 7 - Yecla 2008

by Steve

15 Goldwings met at the Plaza de Torros in Yecla on the Saturday of the towns fiesta, we rode all of 500 meters to a bar for the usual breakfast, during the hour and a half breakfast another 8 turned up. There were a few who Lorna and I had not met before and we were quickly introduced to them all.

All of the riders present came from the Alicante region, I learned that there approx 60 members of the Goldwing España Cub in the Alicante region.

Lets hope they all turn up one day as that would be a lovely sight.

We were joined by a member of the Policia Local on a BMW and we set off for a ride around the town with lights and sirens blaring out, and that was on the wings.

After a ride around the very busy streets of Yecla we arrived at our hotel, the ones who were staying got booked in and we then rode to a large roundabout in the town and duly parked on it, as normal we were then swamped by members of the public to admire the bikes.

After a browse around the medieval market we rode down to the bus station where 46 of us sat down and had a fantastic meal, only in Spain could that many people sit outside a bus station and be fed a great meal.

After a couple of hours we rode up into the town centre and parked the bikes up for then night. We then walked around the streets for a few beers and to watch the floats in the Carnival, and what a sight there must have been 40 of them, all made from hand made paper flowers, it must have took them hours.

We visited many bars over the next few hours and the whole town was in party mood with garages opened up as bars and the wine was flowing.

Around 10 o'clock (I think) we made our way to another restaurant and once again ate for a couple of hours.

Then it was back into the throng of party goers for a few more beers before retiring back to the hotel at around 3am.

Another great weekend with great friendly like minded people, in a very nice hotel and enjoying the Spanish way of life. I even remembered the camera only to find after 2 photos the batteries were flat, we couldn't find a shop open so that's the only record of a great weekend. Our European trips start next month when, on the 12th we are in Lloret de Mar for the Spanish Treffen, then off to Wels in Austria for the Austrian Treffen at the end of June.